An accountability court in Karachi on Wednesday convicted seven former government officials and private individuals, including the former chairman of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Scheme (SBBHS), over misappropriating approximately Rs240 million from the funds of the Sindh government-funded low-cost housing scheme.

The convicts — which include the chairman of the Benazir Housing Cell (BHC) at the time, Manzar Abbas, as well as past BHC deputy directors and others — were found guilty of misusing their official authority, corruption and corrupt practices.

Abbas was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in 2015 along with other officials and citizens. The accountability bureau had filed a corruption reference against them alleging that they had misappropriated over Rs365 million of funds for SBBHS, which was to be launched in six districts of Sindh.

The prosecution claimed that the accused had issued fake calculations for the issuance of illegal cheques to M/s Fiza Social Welfare Organisation — which was engaged in building 2,400 cheap houses — against which funds were illegally released and misappropriated.

Accountability Court-IV's Justice Fareed Anwar Qazi today pronounced the verdict, which had been reserved earlier after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

Judge Qazi awarded the main accused, Abbas, and four others a sentence of five years of imprisonment, along with a fine of Rs15 million on each of them.

The judge also sentenced two of the other convicts with two-years imprisonment and ordered them to pay Rs6m each.